Thirteen
by Blood Dahlia
Summary: What about all of the other test subjects...? Plz read! Only my second fanfic  -
1. Awakening

**My newest story~~~~ :D **

**Enjoy, and remember to R/R, my good people ;)**

Brightness. My whole world was brightness.

My eyes adjusted, and I realized that the brightness was coming from a long cylinder hanging from a stained ceiling. It lit up the whole room, and was the only light-source. _Light bulb, _my brain told me. _This is a light bulb. _

"Good morning, Test Subject 9-13!"

A robotic voice echoed around the room, cheery and male. It was a shock-I hadn't heard a voice in so long. How long? I asked myself. I couldn't remember exactly. It had been too long that I had been asleep. The voice continued.

"You have been in cryostasis for"-there was a loud beep-"and have been woken under Safety Protocol 6729, stating that all test subjects must be woken up every three months of cryostasis to ensure that they are mentally and physically healthy."

Something inside me told me that this...'Safety Protocol' hadn't been followed, and I had been asleep much, much longer.

As the voice droned on about how safety was the most important aspect, I closed my eyes and moved my neck to the side. It was stiff, but not impossible to move-paralyzed, I decided after a couple of seconds.

I licked my lips, and then gagged. Something cold and salty was on my lips that made my stomach churn and the hairs on my neck stand on end. I forced myself to swallow it. I licked my lips again, and was satisfied to find that the taste was gone.

"By now, you must have licked your lips and tasted an unpleasant taste. This is simply a substance that protects the body from harm while it is in cryostasis. Don't be alarmed, it's perfectly harmless. Even nutritious."

That was convenient.

"You may notice some stiffness of the body," the voice said. "This is common if you have been in cryostasis for over 3 months. Now, let's start off slow. Wave your hand when you feel ready. Take your time."

My finger twitched, and I had the realization that I probably hadn't actually done this in forever-from the voice, at least three months. I pushed away these thoughts and tightened my fingers into a fist. After doing this a couple of times, I rose my arm and moved it from side to side in a waving gesture.

"Good!" the voice praised. "You have completed the first portion of the test. For the second part, sit up out of your bed and stand up. If you are having any trouble with this, flag down a worker. He or she will be with you as soon as possible."

I braced my elbows underneath me and pushed myself up. My vision spun, and I nearly fell back onto the bed. When I was sure I was okay, I moved the covers off my legs. I looked at them for a while, noticing that they were a deep tan and had a bright orange jumpsuit just above my ankles. When I was done examining my legs, I looked around the room.

The walls had once been white, but now were brown and stained, like the carpet under my feet. There was a small black box on the wall-a TV-and it showed black and white static. Wilting flowers were in a glass on a small table that was next to the bed. Two bright paintings were on the wall and an empty closet was next to me. On the ceiling, next to the light, was a speaker, which the voice was coming from. A door across from the bed. Besides that, the room was empty.

"Good," the voice said as I managed to roll onto my feet clumsily. "These are the first two parts of the test. The next one involves using your hearing and response. When you hear the buzzer, raise one of your hands. The next time, use your other." I calmly did this. "Good work. Now raise you-r-r-r..." The voice died out with a loud click.

I didn't waste any time; something told me it would be better to get out of this room, instead of doing tests to check to see if my senses were still good.

I padded over to the door, and tried the door. It didn't open, and I braced my feet and shoved with all my might, suddenly desperate to get out. After a few good shoves, I gasped as the hinges suddenly gave out and I fell flat on top of it. I laid on my stomach for a while, not wanting to move and my mind racing. The hallway's ground was hard stone, and was cracked. Green plants were scattered around, crawling up the walls.

There was a sound next to my ear. A quiet sound, but a sound nonetheless. It sounded robotic, like tiny metal legs moving across stone. I looked up, and saw a small, round...robot-I finally remembered the word-standing on three legs in front of me. It was made out of a smooth white substance, and had a single red eye, with a beam pointing out of it.

Its gaze suddenly fell on me, and I held my breath. The black dot that represented the pupil widened and shrank, focused directly at me. My instincts were screaming at me to get away as fast as I could, but I couldn't move. I could feel it...analyzing me. Seeing if I was a threat or not. A high-pitched female voice came from the robot abruptly.

"Unauthorized personnel detected," it said. "Immediate actions required to stabilize threat." Two panels opened on its sides, and red beams came out of them, focusing on my chest and forehead. The eye turned to a glowed brighter.

Reflexes took control, and I scrambled up to my feet and ran as fast as I could around the corner. Bullets whizzed by my head, hitting the wall behind me harmlessly. I didn't stop running.

My surroundings were a blur as I ran.

Trees...green plants...brown water...falling apart walls...desks...light seeping in from cracks...puddles at my feet...

I stopped when I was sure I was safe. I stopped at a pool of water and pulled up my pants. It was getting hotter, and I unzipped part of the suit and slipped my arms out, letting it hang around my waist. Underneath it I found I had a white tanktop made out of a rough fabric. I waded through the water until I reached the other side. I leaned forward, putting my head against a stonewall that was crumbling and gathered my thoughts. I took a few deep breaths, and categorized what I knew-or didn't.

I didn't know who I was, first of all. I didn't remember anything about family members, friends...anything other than from I woke up.

I checked the suit for any sort ID card. Anything. Anything I could use to tell me who I was. The only thing that really had anything written on it was a small, metal bracelet that was around my left arm. Written on it was 'aVera 9-13.' I didn't remember what it meant. All I knew that it was important, but not a name.

When this was established, I leaned forward and looked into the murky water. The ripples subsided, and a face stared back at me. A woman's face. With big eyes that were a sharp green, and long black hair that tumbled into the water. Dark, black lashes. Tanned skin. Round lips. About 17 or 18 years old. Something in my brain told me that in normal society this would be considered beautiful.

I crouched down and stuck my hand into the water, wiping it across my face. It felt cool and soothing, and I welcomed it. I knew not to drink it, though-it could have bacteria in it and I wasn't thirsty.

I dried my hand on the orange pants and straightened, looking for a way to continue on. One of the walls had fallen, crashing into the next room. It was easy for me to climb in my bare feet up to the edge.

I sat with my feet dangling, looking at the ground. There was no more water, but the stone floor looked unsafe. There would be no way to climb back up the walls-my only hope would be the round door that was made out of steel sitting on the wall.

Taking a deep breath, I jumped off and landed on my feet. I smiled at my success, and started to take a step forward towards the door—

There was a loud crash, and the floor underneath me gave way. I tried to scream, but no noise came out of my mouth. This is called being mute, that annoying know-it-all voice said to me. And just as soon as I was free falling, I hit the ground with a _thump _and a _splash._

I lay on my back, my bottom half in the water, my top on a piece of wall. I couldn't move, and winced at the pain in my arm. A few stray pebbles bounced off of me. Everything was still after that, and I spent those minutes trying to stay conscious. Every single part of me pounded with a pain. I couldn't help thinking that it couldn't get any worse...

...then I heard the sounds of small robotic arms, just as I was about to completely fall into darkness. I saw the familiar face of a white robot and red eye...a female voice...the robot suddenly disappearing...a real girl's face switching with it's...

"Are you okay?"

I promise I'll update this frequently, if school and parents allow, lolz. I'm going to do the next part either tonight or tomorrow. ^_^


	2. Test Subjects

Next installment of mah story :3

**PLEASE READ**—for the purposes of this story, not all of the test subjects were dead, and Wheatley did go bad but GLaDOS let him come back (ik, ik—totally unlike her. But don't argue with the author! *slaps with rolled up newspaper*Bad reader, bad!), and Chell's still out in la-la land.

Ugh…my dad's coming to visit this Friday O.O I haven't seen him in a few months (my rents are divorced and my dad lives on the other side of the world ^_^") and I'm sooooo nervous…

Bah! Anyways! On with the story! Remember to R/R! xP

"You found her _where_? How do we know she's not working for GLaDOS?"

"I don't think she is. She wouldn't have been careless. That turret was about to kill her, anyway. Why would it kill someone on it's own team?"

"Okay, you have a point-"

"Shh! I think she's waking up!"

The voices quickly hushed, and I realized that they had been talking about me. I didn't want to keep them waiting, so I opened my heavy eyes and looked up.

The ceiling was white. I was starting to get used to that color. It had an odd texture that was hard to describe in words. I was on what felt like the bed I had woken up on-feathery and soft.

A voice addressed to me spoke, and I recognized it immediately as the voice of the person I met when I fell. "Are you okay?"

She was tall. Blond hair that was pulled into a ponytail. Dark eyes that sparkled in the light. She wore an orange suit, like mine, and wore it the same way. Four people were behind her-two boys and two girls, all dressed in the same outfits as ours.

One of the boys had light brown hair and eyes, with big muscles in his arms. He had tattoos running up one of his arms to his neck. The other boy was tall and lean, with blue eyes and sandy brown hair. He had a light scar that ran across his cheek.

The first girl had bright red hair, with muddy brown eyes and freckles across her nose and cheeks. The other girl was average height, with short, wavy blond hair and brown eyes. She wore her tank top higher than everyone else's, showing a piercing in her bellybutton.

I nodded, sitting up. I was right in assumption that I was in a bed similar to the one before-it was a single cot. The room was a large, rectangular shape, with the walls all the same clean white and a round door on the other end of the room. Five other beds were lined up next to me.

"Don't worry," the girl with wavy blond hair said soothingly. "You're safe, and completely unharmed."

"Can you tell me where you are?" the tattooed boy asked. I didn't respond. I simply started around the room in wonder.

Before he could yell at me the question again, because he didn't know I couldn't answer, there was a hissing sound, and a panel slid open from the wall, showing that the wall was about half a foot thick. A long, black pole slid out of it, stopping about two feet out. Attached to it was a sphere, made out of gray metal, with black lines, and a large, blue eye like the robot in the hallway, except this one seemed...almost lifelike, in a way, and it sounded like a man when he spoke.

He had an accent that I couldn't exactly place. It's British, my brain said. I didn't remember anything about it, but as soon as I started to try and think about it my brain was flooded with information. _Britain, officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is located on the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is composed of Scotland, Wales, Britain, Ireland, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea..._

I winced, touching one of my temples. My head was pounding from the rush of information. Where did all that come from?

"Alright," he said as soon as he was inside the room. His voice had an almost…metallic ring to it. "I have some good news and bad news-AHHHH!"

He stopped in mid-sentence when he saw me. I shrank back and away from him, frightened by his loud voice. He moved so he was on the edge of the room and the outside. "Wh-wh-wh-who is that?" he stuttered.

"You tell us," the blond girl said impatiently. "Jade found her being attacked by a turret. Care to elaborate where she came from?"

The robot didn't seem to hear her. "This is impossible! All of the other test subjects are either brain dead or actually dead! How could there be ANOTHER human still alive? Oh-h-h, I hope GLaDOS knows about this..."

"Hey, hey hey!" the tattooed boy yelled after him. "Where are you going? Come back here, dammit, Wheatley!"

The robot-Wheatley-stopped from zipping away on the pole. "Uh, okay, here's what we're going to do," he said quickly. "Uh, Jade, take what's-her-face with me up to GLaDOS, and maybe we can figure out what to do. Everyone else, move on to the tests."

I was starting to think the whole room was made out of panels. Two circular areas of the floor opened up, revealing two cylinders made out of three layers of glass. Simultaneously, the first layer of glass on both of them opened horizontally. The next layer went vertically, then horizontally yet again.

The boys walked into one, and the girls into the other. The blond girl waved to Jade, who was still next to me, as the glass panels slid shut and the one with the boys went up, the one with the girls went opposite.

"If you would be so kind," Wheatley said, sounding distracted. Yet another glass cylinder came out of a panel on the wall, the same as the other two. "Hurry, hurry, I don't want this to take to long..." He went on muttering as Jade walked into the cylinder.

I glanced at the cylinder uncertainly, unsure if it would be okay to simply walk into it or not. "You coming or not?" Jade snapped, and I decided that it would be better to just follow her.

Inside the cylinder it was surprisingly spacious. Jade relaxed against the railing, looking out. Wheatley somehow got into the small place and hung from the ceiling from a piece of black pole. I gasped and hung on to the railing as the whole thing shook, and we slowly rose into the ceiling.

"What, you've never been in an elevator?" Jade said, looking at me curiously. I didn't respond; I was too awestruck by what I saw out of the glass when we were out of the room.

The outside stretched on endlessly. Large cubes with flashing blue lights on them were hanging from thick railings. Pillars thicker than the room I was just in disappeared into the ceiling and floor, which were too far away for me to actually see. Tubes, like the one that had our elevator, were carrying various robotic parts and were connecting almost all of the cubes. Behind me, Jade and Wheatley were arguing.

"How could you not know about this?" Jade hissed. "You and GLaDOS _swore _that all the other subjects were dead!"

"That's what we thought! Well, at least I did, but I don't see why GLaDOS would be keeping this from us! Here, let's see if she can shed some light on where she came from. Hallo, love! Can you hear me?"

I turned away from the amazing display and faced Wheatley and Jade, who were watching me expectantly.

"Do you know your name?" Wheatley asked. I blinked rapidly, not saying anything. "That's an answer in itself, I guess," he muttered. Louder, he said, "Can you tell me where you are? Can you even speak at all? Say something. Say-say 'aaaahhhh...'"

I shook my head, trying to convey that I couldn't speak. "Grea-a-a-a-t," Jade sighed. "She's mute."

"At least that's out of the way," Wheatley said reasonably. "It does...complicate things, though. Love, do you know where you are?" I shook my head again.

"These questions are leading nowhere," Jade said to Wheatley, "just give it up."

"No, no, I think we're managing to make some...progress. Obviously, she's mute. There's a bracelet on her wrist, so she's a test subject. And...there might be some damage to her brain, leading to the forgetfulness. Don't worry, though, it should be alright."

"How is this going to be alright?" Jade yelled at him. "She has brain damage. For all we know she could be psychotic and kill us all!"

"That's a one in two thousand, three hundred seventeen chance," Wheatley snorted. "Lookit her. She's like a little foal, all harmless and scared. You scared her with your yelling. Chill." The railing he was on moved forward and he looked me in the eyes. "She's a bit of a bully, love. Once you get used to it, she's actually quite easy to ignore."

"I'm right-here!" Jade said, waving her arms for effect.

Wheatley glanced back at her. "You do realize you look like a total idiot, right?" Before she could scream at him, he interrupted her by speaking to me. "I'm guessing you don't know much about what's going on, so I'll try to give you the quick version.

"First and foremost, you're a test subject. This is a test facility. Called Aperture Science. As you can see, it's in a right mess at the moment. That's because, er, the world ended. It's okay though! Society hasn't completely rebuilt itself, but you'll all be safe! You're here!

"Moving on from that. This place didn't actually come fully back online until GLaDOS, the AI that runs this place, was rebooted only a week ago. Can you believe a human took her down? I mean, a _human!_ A top-notch AI!"

"You're getting off-topic," Jade said in a singsong voice, looking at her fingernails.

"Right-you-are," Wheatley said tightly. "Since you're a test subject, we've made some tweaks to your biological needs."

"You don't need to eat or drink as much as a normal person," Jade cut in, "and you heal way faster. And sleep is the same. It's cool. One time, when I was with Rodger-the tattooed boy you saw earlier-"

"Getting off-topic," Wheatley said mockingly. Jade glared at him and then grumbled to herself. "Ignoring the downer over there, I'll continue on. GLaDOS's still trying to get this whole place organized, so watch out for falling parts, and big-emphasis on 'big'-insect creatures."

The elevator started to shake, and Jade glanced up, moving away from the railing. The tube was leading the elevator straight for one of the cubes. "We're here."

"All right, a quick few things you need to know," Wheatley said hastily. "Do _not _insult her or do anything to make her angry. I've seen her incinerate people only because they asked her to repeat herself. Obviously this won't be much of a problem with you, but-Can you even understand me-oh screw it, we're here. Just-stay by Jade, okay, love?"

The wall we were heading for opened up in a ripple of small squares. The opening was just big enough for the tube we were in to slip in and be put right side up on a stand.

The room was about 30 feet tall and about double that in length. The walls, ceiling and floor were made out of dark gray rectangles of some material that was smooth like metal. In the middle of it was a robot hanging from the ceiling, bigger than the other robots I'd seen. It was a mixture of wires expertly placed underneath yellow shields. On the bottom of this was a head that was half the size of my body. It was an oval shape, with wires coming out of it and a bright yellow light in the middle. Around the robot-GLaDOS, I guessed-were free floating blue screens with data running across them.

Don't trust her, part of me said-the same part that had been giving me the information up into this point. She doesn't like you. She's dangerous. Stay away.

I leaned as far into the glass as I could as the doors slid open and yet another railing came down from the ceiling for Wheatley to move around in the room.

"I hope you have a good reason for interrupting me work," GLaDOS said in a cold female voice. "You know I don't like being disturbed."

"Er, yes, well, Jade and I came across something rather...odd," Wheatley said awkwardly. "You see, when I came into the test subjects' room to so they could start the tests-I do this on schedule every time, just like you-"

"_Get on with it-!" _she snapped, and then whipped her head around. She froze and stared at me. "Who is this?" she asked softly.

"This is...um, she can't speak, so we don't know her name. She just came out of cryostasis and-"

"I know your face," GLaDOS said, not paying any attention to Wheatley' rambling. "Where have I seen you before...? Urgh, my memory cards aren't all fully operational yet. I don't have the memory file of anyone with your face. What's your ID number?" I looked at her, opening and closing my mouth silently.

"It's aVera 9-13," Wheatley said, quickly coming over and leaning forward so he could see my bracelet. GLaDOS rose slightly and she turned away from us.

"So...what's going to happen to her?" Jade asked when it was obvious that GLaDOS wasn't going to talk without prompting.

"She seems harmless enough," GLaDOS mused. "I think she'll be fit for cooperative testing after a few independent tests. I want to know about her body structure before the subject interacts with the other test subjects."

Two ovals, both orange, opened behind the elevator. "Both of you, pick one and finish the test," GLaDOS said absently, obviously lost in thought. "Wheatley, go with the new one. Test subject aVera 9-13. Show her what is to be done." She turned back to the screens and didn't say anything else.

"Yes, ma'am," Wheatley said. Jade didn't say anything as she chose the one on the left. I gasped when she simply vanished into the purple oval.

"Here," GLaDOS said, and a small container holding a pair of pristine white boots came up. "These boots will come in handy. All test subjects have them. They make it so you always land on your feet, and absorb the shock of a fall, no matter how bad."

I took them off the glass container, and after undoing and redoing a few straps, I was surprised to find they fit my feet perfectly. Almost like a second skin. A type of foam seemed to mold to my feet as soon as I put them on.

"You coming?" Wheatley called to me as he moved to the other oval. Like Jade, he vanished. After a couple of seconds, he popped his head back out. "It's a portal. Don't worry-it's 95% safe." He went back to the other side, and I walked up to it.

I didn't want to rush right into it. I carefully reached my hand through the middle of the purple oval. It felt jelly-like, except when I quickly took back my hand there was nothing on it. Nothing on it, except some dirt from before. Perfectly fine.

Deciding it was safe, I walked purposefully through. Before I was completely, though, I heard GLaDOS say something. I didn't know if she was just talking to herself or to me.

"What are your secrets, 9-13?"

Ta-daaaa! I'm actually kind of happy how this turned out :D not my best, yet not my worst. And yes, I'm that kind of person ;P

Until next time~


	3. The First Test is Always the Easiest

Here's the next installment~

Sorry it took so long. I hate homework…curse essays…TT^TT

Thank you guys sooo much for reading this! It means a lot to me :D

On with the story!

"Careful, love, there's a hole in the path up here."

I nodded my head and leaped over it, taking a running start first. I managed to land on my feet neatly, only wobbling slightly when I was pelted by some stray rocks.

"Nicely done," Wheatley said. "I'd applaud, if I had hands..." I smiled at him. We continued on the narrow metal path that we had been following for awhile. The walls around us were made out of crumbling white stone that had colored accents occasionally.

"This'll probably be our only time to talk...technically, only I'll be talking, though...ah well." He went in a complete circle on his rail. "Right. Let's try think of a name for you. It's a pain, either calling you 'love' or 'aVera 9-13.' I won't stop calling you 'love,' but I just like having the opportunity to not to call you 'love,' if that makes any sense. Hmmm..."

The only sounds for a while were my footsteps and the hum of Wheatley moving along. "Mutie? Silent?" I shook my head. I didn't like either of those. He threw out a few others, all of which I didn't like. "You're not exactly helping, love. Hm, what about Thirteen? It has your number in it, and it's stylish."

I ran the name through my head a few times, then silently said it out loud. Deciding I liked the sound of it, I nodded my head. "That was easy enough. So. Thirteen. That's a nice name. Has a certain...ring to it. Oh, god, a turret. Be quiet for a tic and don't make eye contact."

A turret, which turned out to be like the ones I met when I first woke up, walked down the path. I had to squish against the wall so it wouldn't bump into me. It continued walking forward, but somehow the red eye still stared at us.

"God, I hate them," Wheatley muttered. "They're always going around the place like they own it, and suck up to GLaDOS at every chance they get. Hey, don't give me that look! I do it only when I know she's pissed! There is a difference you know."

I rolled my eyes and jumped over yet another gap in the path.

This one was wider then I had first though, and my feet only reached the edge. I held my breath as I slipped off and hit my chin on the hard metal. The hit left me dazed and hanging by only one arm.

"Oh my God, are you okay? Uh, uh is there anything-?" Wheatley spun from side to side, desperately trying to find something to pull me up.

My grip started to slip, but I managed to use my other arm to hold myself up. There was a loud crack, and Wheatley stopped moving and we stared at the portion of pathway I was holding on to. There was another crack, and I went plummeting down, down, down...

I landed in a puddle of water about a foot deep. How was this possible? I had landed on my feet, even though I knew I should have broken both my legs. It took me a few seconds, but I realized what caused it and humbly looked down at the boots, which were under water now.

"Are you alive down there?" Wheatley called down, his voice echoing. I glanced up. He looked like a small dot from this distance. "Oh, bugger, you can't talk. Here, let's do this: you can still reach the testing area if you follow that pipe. You'll know when you reach it, I'll be waiting there. On your way, try to find a device it—it looks kind of like a gun. Buggar, you know what that—y'know what, you'll know when you find it. Good luck, love!"

Blinking in the darkness, I looked around the tunnel for the pipe. It wasn't that hard to miss, considering it took up half the tunnel. Running my hand across its rusty surface, I waded through the water. It was hard to see everything, so I tripped over many things that were hidden in the water. Within a few minutes I was completely soaked.

The dark tunnel opened up into a bright room that, like most of the building, was made out of white rectangular blocks. The tunnel entered the room from a gaping hole about six feet tall. I was sensing a pattern here. Green vines were hanging in a canopy over the lights from above. Half the floor was underwater and the other half was covered with dead leaves that crunched under my feet. Some of the floor panels were raised, creating a path up to a room higher up.

"Welcome, to the Aperture Testing Facilities!"

I jumped at the voice that echoed around the room. It was the same voice that was there when I first woke up. I tried to ignore it as it spouted useless facts about Aperture's history, but it was hard to as I climbed up the floor panels.

The room I entered was dark, and an elevator tube was in the middle of it. Two doors were on either side of it. On the wall were three black arrows that had 'follow' written sloppily on them, pointing to the right door. I ran my fingers over them. They felt like they had been engraved with a sharp object, then had been outlined in ink.

The door the arrows were pointing it at was stuck, but after a few good shoves it opened easily. It was a long, white hallway with vines, and after a hundred yards it opened to another room. On the ground, next to one of the walls, was a piece of cloth, white and shiny. I went over to it and found it was an armband, like the one Wheatley had told me to look for. I put it on, and then heard a familiar face yelling at the speakers in the room ahead.

"Bloody hell! Does this thing ever shut up? I don't even know how you're still running! Your batteries should've given out years ago! Why-AHHHH! Oh, it's just you! Stop sneaking up on me, love! Clap or something next time!"

I tilted my head to the side, watching Wheatley. "I'm glad you made it," he said. "I was just...screaming at a speaker. It's not as stupid as it sounds-okay, it might be. Let's just go to the first test. It's easy, easy. The first test is always easy. I'm going to have to hack this door though...might take a few minutes, since we went around the back way...so sit down and relax. Rest up for your big first-_easy_-test."

His eye unfocused, and I sat down on the floor, one of my knees raised, the other down. I leaned my head against the cold wall, and started fiddling with my bracelet. Wheatley said random things at times, like how he hated primitive technology and how there should be a limit to how many passwords there were on one thing.

Something caught my eye in the cracks of the floor. A wad of folded up paper. Frowning, I sat up dug it out with my fingernails. After a few seconds of working it, finally it came free. I unfolded it, and found a drawing written on it. A girl, with her eyes closed. Long, black hair, and lashes. An orange jumpsuit, with white accents. Rounded lips. At the bottom of the picture was written, _'The only hope of Aperture.'_

It was me.

I stared at it, reading that line over and over again in my head, unable to believe what I was seeing. How did someone know what I looked like? Why would they call me the only hope of Archway? What was wrong with Archway?

My mind swam with questions, and I crumpled up the piece of paper into a ball. I stuck it back into the crack as Wheatley spoke.

"And-d-d off we go!" The round door slid open. Wheatley turned to me, looking proud of himself. "Ah, I forgot how the old chambers all looked the same. It gets really repetitive. I won't be able to help you after this test, so ask questions while you can. Or, try to signal them as best you can. After this test, it's hardwired into my system that I can't help you. Don't be discouraged if you don't catch on. Now all we have to do is wait for the railing to come down so I can get in."

I rolled back onto my feet. Wheatley waited a few seconds for the railing to come down, but it was soon apparent it wasn't going to.

"Alright, this thing isn't coming," he sighed, moving back slightly from the door. "Okay, um, this is what we're going to do. I'm going to derail myself. I've never done this before, but I've heard stories of AIs going offline by doing this wrong, so if I die...you're kind of screwed."

Wheatley squinted his eye, and after a few beeps, he popped off his rail. "_AAARH!" _I lurched forward, and managed to catch him before he touched the ground. I had to fumble with him, but it was okay. I held him out a distance from my body so we could look at each other.

"Oh-h," he sighed with relief. "I'm alive. And being held. Aw, this is bril." His eye spun around, while the rest of his body stood still in my arms. "We can go wherever we want. Is this how it feels like to be a human? Amazing. Onward ho!"

The testing chamber, like most of the building, was white, with vines growing through the cracks. This room, though, had a plant that was larger than the rest growing in the corner, which had gnarled roots breaking up the floor tile and a layer of a green substance-moss. A tree, my brain told me. That's what it's called. They're common in the outside world.

The floor tiles in the centre of the room made a square with nine parts, all different colors. The middle one was a plain white, like the other floor tiles.

"How the hell did a tree get so far underground? It's highly illogical-" Wheatley was interrupted by the same male voice from before.

"Welcome to your first test, Aperture test subject! For your first test, you have to remember the sequence of the lights and relay them on the square in the center of the room. It will go for 30 different portions, each time having a new color added to the pattern. When you're ready, step on the white section. The test will start automatically three seconds later."

"I'm really getting sick of that thing," Wheatley said, glaring at the ceiling. I giggled and then stepped into the middle one after some prodding from Wheatley. I pointed to the tree, asking silently if he wanted me to put him down. "No, you don't use your arms for this test. I'll be fine in your hands."

Three loud beeps signaled the start of the test. The male voice said the first color.

Blue.

I stuck out my left foot and tapped the blue square. "This is a breeze," Wheatley said, unconcerned. He settled himself deeper into my arms. "It's a memory game. I used to love these, y'know, before the world ended and all." I did the next set quickly.

Blue, Red, Purple.

"Has anyone told you your arms are really soft? Oh, well probably not. But they are. It's nice."

Blue, red, purple, green, pink, orange, purple, purple, black.

"ARGH! Did you see how big that spider was? In the corner? You didn't—oh. Right. Test."

I lost count of how many I had done. Wheatley stopped talking to me at some point when it became obvious that I had to use all of my concentration to complete the test. I was relieved to find out that there wasn't a time limit between the button presses. A few times I had to stop quite awhile to remember the next color, and at the end of the test I only made one small mistake, because Wheatley had started talking to me again.

"Nicely done, love!" Wheatley praised. "You've done better than any human I've ever seen do on that test. I wonder-"

"Good work, test subject! By simply doing this first test, you've helped science greatly. Move on to the next test chamber, via the elevator." An elevator rose up out of the floor with a gentle hiss.

"Remind me to hack into that bloody thing next chamber," Wheatley said irritably. I walked into the elevator, and it rose up into a tunnel so dark the only light sources were Wheatley and the light above us.

"This is probably going to be a long trip," Wheatley said, looking up at me as I sat down on the ground with my knees raised. "Let's try to create some sort of sign language so we can understand each other: waving arms crazily can be 'I'm about to die, come save me.' That works pretty well, eh?" I laughed without sound and agreed.

We spent the whole elevator ride trying to create a sign language that would be useful. I'll admit, most of the stuff we made wasn't useful, but did help jog my memory of the names of some things, like what using the restroom meant, what my favorite color was, what a color actually was, and the like. He said something about having to teach me actual sign language at some point, but I didn't understand what it was.

"We should get the others to help with that," Wheatley stated matter-of-factly, "So you can see examples and stuff, to make it easier to learn." I nodded, and then we went silent.

I'll put the next part up either tomorrow in the afternoon or tonight ^-^

Until then~


	4. The Agility Test

Woooo! Next part! :D Happiness~~

Remember to read and review, pretty please. Or GLaDOS will come into your room at night and sic turrets on you…:) AHEM! ANYWAY!

Read and enjoy:

"Yeah, if you get close to that wall, a panel will slide out. Plug me into it. I'll find a way to turn that damn voice off."

I did as he said, moving to the wall. A panel slid back to reveal a stick and a blue screen next to it. Wheatley was pulled towards it-like a magnet, I realized after a second-and he snapped easily into the stick. Blue screens fizzled around his head, like the ones with GLaDOS.

"And that should do it," Wheatley said. The cheery voice died away after a few seconds into nothing more of a whisper. "It's in the system that you can't turn the voice completely off. For safety, or some stuff like that. So I made it only the test instructions are loud. At least it's better than so loud it's echoing. Anyway. Go to the next test."

The door opened as it normally did. A part of me deep down, the side that was negative, wondered if I was going to be doing this for the rest of my life. If anything was ever going to change. Elevator. Door. Chamber. Congratulations. Elevator. Repeat.

I shook my head slightly and forced myself to pay attention to the room around the instructions and me. The room was larger than the rest, with random semicircles coming out of the ground, about as high as my hip and deeply curved. They were made out of glass, with metal bars holding them together. On the ceiling were small rods, but I didn't know what they did. I was sure I wasn't going to like them, though.

"This test will test your agility. Deadly lasers will be deployed as soon as the instructions are done. If you are in contact with these lasers for longer than five seconds, you will be killed. Press the buttons in the order of the numbers on them to stop the lasers and open the door. I suggest you take cover. Happy testing!"

Wheatley started to say something, but was interrupted when red beams of light shot out of the rods on the ceiling. I knew something was wrong as soon as I heard a clicking sound. I held Wheatley tightly to my chest and dove into the nearest semicircle. I did a neat flip and landed crouched behind it, away from the moving lasers.

"Bloody freakin' hell!" Wheatley cursed, stuttering. I held him more gently now that we were relatively safe. "Did you see those things? They just came out of nowhere! Man, if it weren't for your fast reflexes we'd both be dead. Now I can put my laser shields up. Chuck the Portal Gun over by the door, so you'll be able to use both your hands, and do the same to me.

When there were only a few lasers by us, I leaned my torso out from behind the shelter and slid the Portal Gun to the door. It bounced off the doors harmlessly. I did the same to Wheatley, and he knocked into the gun, which made him stop. He called to me one last good luck. I waved to him in acknowledgement, and then quickly jumped away when a laser almost hit my face.

I scanned the room, looking for the buttons that were mentioned before. There were four buttons in total. The first one, labeled by one dot, was the second one from the door on the ground. It was on a white stand, and was a bright red. The second one, which was third from the door, was high up on the wall, with the wall swooping into a steep ramp. The third was right by the door, and was in a small white box with no lid. Finally, the fourth one was right next to me. It was almost taunting me. I could easily just reach out and press it without even leaving the shelter I was in.

I tensed my legs as I prepared to jump to the next shelter. I waited until there weren't any lasers around and sprinted into the next one. A laser grazed my suit leg, and I heard a fizzling sound. The laser burned a hole the size of my fist into it, with the edges a dark brown. I forced myself not to think about it as I planned out my next move.

"You alright?" Wheatley called to me. "I-I heard a fizzling sound and something smells like burned...something."

I stuck out my thumb to tell him I was okay. "Oh, thank God. If you couldn't finish this test we'd both be in super hot water with GLaDOS..." He shuddered. "Anyway, there has to be some trick to this test. Think outside of the box-wait, you don't know what that means, do you? Er, just-be creative! Bugger, I hope you know what that means..."

I ignored his blabbering and focused on the more pressing matter of trying to figure out the Agility Test. This test wasn't impossible; I was sure of that. There had to be some pattern-a way to safely move across the testing area.

After a few minutes of trying to ignore Wheatley and looking for a pattern, I finally saw it. If I followed one of the lasers close enough, it would lead me in a looped path to all of the buttons. I would have to be extremely fast and precise, but I had no choice. It was either that or facing GLaDOS.

Counting to three in my head-Wheatley had taught me in the trip over-I dashed away from my safe spot and into the free spot. I followed the one laser that set the path to all the buttons. I pressed the first one with ease, and then sprinted to the second one. The blood pumping through my ears blocked out most of the sound, but I could dimly hear Wheatley cheering me on.

For the second one I ran faster to gain enough speed to run up the wall and press the button. Twirling and landing on my feet, neatly missing two lasers, I raced after the path-making laser to the third one, pressing it easily. A laser caught the cloth on my thigh, but I had to completely ignore it in order to stay on track.

Whipping around, I raced as fast as I could and dived for the final one. My fingers barely brushed it, but it still turned off.

I crouched there for a second, breathing heavily. I straightened and walked over to the door, which was now open, the only sounds being the clicking of my shoes. I picked up Wheatley, whose eye was wide with shock.

"How...what...that...cool!" Wheatley squawked, obviously at a loss for words. I silently giggled and stepped into the elevator.

While we made our way through the place, I sat against the wall, curled into a ball with Wheatley in my arms. I had set the gun carefully by my leg, close enough to grab if necessary. I rested my head against the glass and watched in wonder at our surroundings.

"I'm sorry, by the way."

I blinked a couple of times and cocked my head to the side, our symbol for a question.

"For everything, I mean," Wheatley said hurriedly, looking embarrassed. "I mean, it must be really hard to do all these tests just after getting out of cryo, and not having any memories...terrifying. But I'll try to help you get them back, love. We were actually working on a Memory Restoration Device before the world, y'know, ended."

I nodded again and shifted so we were more comfortable. You wouldn't think it, but those tests were actually surprisingly hard. They were made to test all of your skills to the extreme, according to Wheatley. Little things made it much, much harder. "Some of them you wouldn't even notice."

There was a shaking of the elevator, jolting me awake. Wheatley shifted in my arms to turn his eye onto me. "We're almost to GLaDOS's chamber again. Put me back on the railing, willya? I don't wanna be thrown in the incinerator again for goofing off."

The know-it-all voice in the back of my head whispered what an incinerator was to my brain, and I couldn't help but shudder slightly.

"You cold, love? It does get a bit drafty at times down here. Since robots don't really need heat to survive, GLaDOS tends to forget to turn on the heat. I'll talk to her about it, if ya want."

"No, it's fine," I signed to him.

I went up onto my toes and latched Wheatley back onto the sliding pole. He reattached himself automatically, with a loud click. It made me jump slightly, and I groped blindly for my bracelet for courage.

The doors opened, and I swooped down to grab the gun from its lonely spot on the floor. I firmly grabbed on to the handle and followed Wheatley out into GLaDOS' chamber.

GLaDOS looked the exact same as how we had left her, suspended in the air, surrounded by blue screens. She turned her luminous eye towards us when we entered. "Ah," she said calmly. "You've finally arrived."

"Sorry for the wait, ma'am," Wheatley stuttered, his voice turning sickly sweet. "There was a slight, ah, accident on the course—"

"I _do _have cameras in the chambers, you fool," she interrupted him icily. Wheatley started at that, and slid back a few inches from her.

"S-sorry, ma'am," he muttered sheepishly.

"Moving on. The test results were…passable," she continued, turning away from us. "Take aVera 9-13 to the Hub, and make sure her and Test Subject Jade are well acquainted before starting them on the Mandatory Beginners' Cooperative Testing Course."

"Yes, right away, ma'am," Wheatley said hurriedly. He turned away from her and towards me. "Come along, aVera 9-13," he said in a commanding tone. "We have important business to attend to."

I gave him a look that clearly said, 'Seriously?' but I complied, nonetheless.

"Woo!" Wheatley sighed deeply in relief as soon as the elevator had started moving. "I tell ya, if I had a bladder, I woulda peed myself by now!"

That helpful yet annoying voice whispered to me, _It's how humans relieve themselves of toxins that may harm the body._ I blinked rapidly to stop the flood of information that came with that simple explanation.

"Anywhoo, this is where the fun begins," Wheatley said, spinning aimlessly on his railing. "The Hub's where you get to eat, use the bathroom, and take showers before you move onto the courses. Totally awesome place, love. And don't worry, everyone'll take to you soon enough. Best of all, you get to finally use…the _Portal Gun._"

I felt a flash of nervousness, and nodded, cradling the Portal Gun to my chest. My instincts were telling me that I was going to…well, to be honest, absolutely hate them. But what could I do? All I had no other choice then to do them. Wheatley had made it obvious you didn't fight with GLaDOS.

Sighing slightly, I watched as the elevator lifted up out of the floor into a large, spacious area, which I guessed to be the Hub. Two long benches, made out of gray metal with black cushions, were in the center of it all.

"Hrmg," Wheatley huffed angrily as I walked down the stairs, glaring around accusingly at the empty space. "Everyone should've been done with the tests by now. Ah, well, they'll be here soon. Just take a seat."

I said down on one of the benches. I was surprised at how soft they were, and ran my fingers over it in wonder.

I silently gasped when one of the many sets of doors opened, to reveal a pair of laughing girls—the ones from before. They were muddy and singed, with Portal Guns in hand. I sat up straighter and tightened my grip instinctively on the Portal Gun I had. I waited tensely as they stopped laughing almost as soon as they saw me.

This chapter had a liiiittle too much happening in it for my liking, so I split it into two parts :P The next part with be up shortly :D


	5. Tandy and Laura

xXKatnissXx: haha, I promise it isn't [REDACTED]. That'd be wayyyy to obvious ;) And it is fun to put [REDACTED], isn't it? btw, thank youuu soo much for reading this! :D it means a lot to me.

Mehh, really tiredddd -_- I'd better just post this before I pass out from exhaustion lolz.

They stopped laughing as soon as they saw me. "Tandy! Laura!" Wheatley called cheerily to them. "C'mere and say hello to the newest test subject!" As they cautiously walked over, Wheatley muttered to me, "The red-head's Tandy, and the blondie's Laura." I nodded and stood up when they reached us.

"So, you and GLaDOS figure everything out?" Tandy asked, looking me up and down.

"Yeah," Wheatley said. "We ran some basic tests, and she did bloody wonderful. An A+, by my standards."

"You're A+ is a D- by most people's standards," Laura teased, grinning.

Wheatley glared at her. "Fine. She got an A+ by normal standards. Happy?" Laura nodded and scratched at a piece of mud on her clothes. "She doesn't have any memories, and is apparently mute, so I've been teaching her a sort of sign language. GLaDOS assigned her to Jade."

"Mm, Jade's gonna be mad that you told us before her," Tandy said, loosely laying her Portal Gun on her shoulder.

"She's kinda cute," Laura said, leaning towards me and giving me a friendly, open smile. "What's your name, hon?" I pointed at my throat and shook my head from side to side.

"Can't talk, remember?" Tandy said condescendingly. Laura scowled at her and stuck out her tongue.

"We came up with Thirteen," Wheatley informed them. "Since her number's 9-13, it seemed fitting. Don't you think?"

"I think it's adorable," Laura said. She waved at me. "Hi! I'm Laura, and she's Tandy. We're also test subjects here." I flushed in embarrassment and gave her a shy wave.

"I was hoping that maybe you could show her the showers," Wheatley said. "She's a bit…ripe, because of the just waking from cryo."

Tandy sniffed the air around me and grimaced. "I smell that," she said sourly, turning her head to the side. Laura elbowed her warningly in the ribs, shooting her a look.

"When you're out of those clothes, we'll get you some new ones and get you cleaned up, Thirteen," Laura said, smiling warmly at me. For some reason, my name rolling off her tongue soothed my frazzled nerves.

No thinking much of it, I put the Portal Gun on the bench and pulled off the grimy tank top I had on. I jumped in surprise and confusion when all three of them yelled for me to stop. Tandy grabbed my hands and lifted them up, covering my chest with the piece of cloth. Laura had forcefully grabbed Wheatley and spun him around so he wasn't facing me.

"I didn't see anything, I didn't see anything, I didn't see anything!" Wheatley squawked, moving side to side on the railing in jerky movements.

"Never do that again, okay, sweetie?" Tandy asked, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and leading me to a door. I looked at her blankly as she led me up an incline to the door. "And don't every show those to the boys." I nodded my head meekly as Laura followed, holding my discarded Portal Gun.

I signed to her the best I could that she was sorry.

"Don't worry about it," Laura said breezily. "How would you know better? It's fine, fine. Let's just forget about it and get you clean, m'kay?" I nodded, and we entered the next room.

The room was made out of pristine white tiles, with adjustable metal things sticking out of the wall. Benches made out of a grainy, brown substance—wood—were against one wall, and bluish-gray containers lined another wall.

Tandy sat on the edge of the bench and started undressing, while Laura started fiddling with one of the metal devices. Water started pouring out of it, and soon the room started to fill with steam.

"That's called a shower head," Laura said, noticing my gaze. "It's what water comes out of for showers." I nodded my understanding, and started to take off the rest of my clothes as they did the same.

I didn't like what they referred to as 'soap.' It stung my eyes, and made me gag when I accidentally got some in my mouth. Tandy yelled at me as I was hacking and gagging, desperately trying to get rid of the taste, while Laura tried to hide her laughter.

When we were done, I felt much, much cleaner, and the new clothes I was given were softer and more comfortable then my old pair. The boots and Portal Gun were still the same, but they were cleaned and new looking.

"Let's go meet Jade," Tandy said, pushing her wet hair back out of her face. "I'm sure she's eager to get the next tests started."

We went back out into the Hub, where Jade was lounging on a bench, chatting with Wheatley. She was tapping her foot absently, and her head was resting on her shoulder.

I shyly ducked my head when Jade saw me. She stood up and nodded her head to us in greeting.

"Dude, wait til you get to the Advanced Emancipation Grid and Turret Courses," Laura said, stretching her arms above her head. "They're wickedly hard, and GLaDOS is always like 'blah, blah, you can do better, blah, blah, you're ugly!' It's evil!"

Jade gave her a half grin. "When I—we"—she corrected with a glance to me—"get there, we can whine about it together. Right now, Thirteen and I gotta bolt to the next set of tests before GLaDOS comes looking for us."

"Sorry, I can't go with you, love," Wheatley said, fixing his eye on me. "I have to go help the nanobots reconstruct the Glass Wing. If it's any sort of consolation, I did manage to teach Jade some of the sign language we came up with, so you two can start to understand each other."

I quickly signed him a thank you and that it wasn't any trouble, smiling at him reassuringly.

There was a squeaking noise coming from Wheatley. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" he snapped at the squeaking. "Don't get your bloody panties in a twist, I do have other duties besides helping your tiny stupid—"

"We're leaving now," Jade said cheerily. She grabbed my arm in a loose grip and nudged me towards a door that was labeled '1.' "See you guys in a few hours."

They called goodbyes to us as we entered the first room. "Well, let's get started then, yeah?" she said. A panel slid out of a wall, and she selected the first one. "You go into the blue one, that one's always the smoothest ride. Since it's your first time in co-op, I'll give it up without a fight."

Jade winked at me as she sauntered over to the yellow elevator. She leaned against the edge of the railing as the doors slid closed, admiring her nails. I hesitantly followed her lead, and jumped nervously when the doors clanked shut.

GLaDOS' voice came through a hidden speaker above me. "Don't worry, Test Subject Thirteen," she said in her smooth voice. "These elevators only have a three in fifty chance of breaking down. You have _nothing _to worry about." She paused. "For now, at least."

I looked up at the ceiling in fear, leaning heavily against the elevator. "I'm not threatening you, or anything like that," she said sarcastically, "I'm simply making you that you're aware that I have to power to simply end your meaningless, human life in a heartbeat. Nod if you understand."

I hurriedly nodded my head. "Good," she said, sounding pleased. "You learn fast for a human. I'm impressed, test subject. And look at that: we're almost to the course. In exactly 3.4 minutes, you and Test Subject Jade will reach the first test. I just came to tell you good luck…and don't mess this up."

There was a blip, and then the elevator was silent.

Yaaaay, another chapter done :D

I'll post the next chapters tomorrow afternoon ^_^

7


	6. Accidents With Portal Guns

AAAAAAAHHHHH MY GODS! IT'S BEEN SO LONG!

I'm so, so sorry it took so long! I've been distracted with so many family issues (my parents' divorce) that I haven't found time to update this. I pinky swear it won't take such a long time next time! Promise! And this is such a short part...TT^TT

ANYWHOO!

On with the chapter!

* * *

><p>The course was easy enough. There was lots of glass walls, and a few ledges. On the walls was a mixture of the familiar black rectangles and odd, white surfaces that had little divots in them. Jade explained to me that only these surfaces could have portals placed on them.<p>

"Rule number one when it comes to using a Portal Gun," Jade instructing me, putting her hands on her hips. "Don't look into the operating end of the device. That glowing part there, and don't ever stick anything in it, unless you want it to catch on fire. Got that much?" I nodded my head rapidly.

"Good," she said, nodding her head in approval. "Okay, now we can actually work on shooting the thing."

Jade came around and stood behind. I was shocked when she slipped her hands across my arms and over my own. I couldn't help but notice how rough and calloused hers were compared to mine. Were they from the tests? Or other things?

"Do ya feel that button on your right?" she asked in my ear. I nodded. "Okay, that's how you do the dark blue portal. You can do two different types of portal with the Gun, and can pick up heavy things like they weigh nothing. Now, do you feel the other button on the other side?" I nodded yet again. "That's the light blue portal."

"To create a portal," she continued, "just aim at a portal-able surface, and press it. Try the dark blue one."

I stumbled slightly at the force of the shot, sharply inhaling. "It's okay," she soothed. "It's a powerful shot, but you get used to it." I nodded hesitantly and looked in wonder at the white wall, where a dark blue circle now resided.

"Aim for the next one," Jade urged, pointing at the next white space. I did the same, and a light blue portal was created. Both now weren't solidly blue but…see through?

Before I could ask her how that was possible, she had shoved me through the closest one. I let out a silent squeal as I stumbled through, falling onto my hands and knees. I looked through the portal behind me in shock. What had just happened?

Grinning cheekily, Jade stepped through the portal, Portal Gun slung over her shoulder. "Nice job, but we should work on the landing," she said casually. I gaped at her, flustered and slightly offended. Ignoring me, she shot a portal at my own. It disappeared and was replaced by her own. She shot another onto a vertical surface on a ledge higher up. "Alee-yup!"

She walked through and did a flip in the air so she landed on her feet. I knew that it was the power of the boots; no way would gravity allow it otherwise.

I hesitantly followed Jade's example, fearing a repeat of being shoved if I didn't. I let out a silent yelp as I twirled in midair and landed safely on my feet. I wobbled a bit, and had to hold my arms out for balance.

"Come on, Tumbles," Jade ordered with a bored sigh as she swaggered over to a blue door. "If we don't hurryap, we'll be at this for hours, and GLaDOS doesn't like to be kept waiting. That's Rule Numero Uno when being a test subject at Aperture."

I frowned at the use of 'Tumbles' instead of my name, Thirteen. This girl seemed to know just the right way to rub me the wrong way. I couldn't even decide if she liked me or not—one minute she'd be happily talking or explaining things to me, and the next she'd be shoving me through holes in the walls. What was with Jade?

"About _time_ you finished," GLaDOS said through the intercom as the door slid open. "I was starting to wonder if you'd both died somehow."

"I'm sorry a certain _someone_ was being so slow," Jade said innocently as she shot two portals so she could go across the murky water in front of us. I glared heatedly at her. Again with the insults!

"Jade, that's not very nice," GLaDOS said in a condescending tone. "You're supposed to be a team. For that, you get to have seven Collaboration points taken away. Congratulations, your total is -59."

I snorted with laughter as Jade stared indignantly at the camera. "Thirteen," GLaDOS said in a slow voice, obviously trying to annoy the other girl, "You're doing wonderful. Exactly what you're supposed to be doing. You earn 14 points." As an afterthought, the robot added, "Oh, and Jade? Try to watch your partner. You might learn a thing or two."

The speaker clicked off, and Jade slammed her fist onto the button, making me jump. She glared at me heatedly. "You are so going down, Tumbles," she growled at me before picking up the cube that fell out of the ceiling and placing it on the button.

I made sure there was at least a good three feet between us—I did not trust her with a blunt object (the Portal Gun) in her possession. Jade just continued to stalk onwards, shoulders hunched and grumbling things under her breath that were aimed at me.

The next tests were probably the scariest. I would always freeze before going through one of Jade's portals, making sure she wasn't going to change it or send me into the water. She would encourage me with sickly sweet words with underlying threats, making me a jittery, nervous mess.

The ride back to the Hub was the best. I was finally away from her and would hopefully be able to see Wheatley. Maybe even Tandy or Lara, if I was lucky. They seemed extremely nice.

I let Jade go first through the sliding doors and into the center room of the Hub before going out. The familiar face of Wheatley came over, chipper and British as ever.

"Hallo, love!" he greeted me loudly. If he had arms, I knew he would be waving them wildly over his head. "How was your—Christ in a hand basket, what's got you so wound up?"

I pointed a finger at Jade, who was just disappearing into the showers.

"Oh." My sentiments exactly. "Er, what did you do exactly?" I shrugged. "Here, I have a solution," he said as his eye unfocused. There was a series of beeping from him. "Lemme just bring up the footage from your course." I waited impatiently for him to finish watching it. "Oh."

I nodded my head and huffed in annoyance. "Well, you're screwed, sweets," Wheatley laughed nervously. "But you'll manage. Jade loves Collaboration points too much to try and kill you. I, er, think."

I looked at him in alarm as he plowed forward. "Let's go get you some food and water, eh? You must be starving and exhausted."

He led me into a small, kitchen-type area. There was a sleek, white table in the center with orange chairs. "Siddown, and let Chef Wheatley take care of you," Wheatley said boastfully.

A string of beeps and buzzes later, a plate and a glass came out from the ceiling. On the place were white slices of something, with a red exterior, and a yellowy-brown substance that was thick.

I snapped my fingers for 'Chef' Wheatley's attention and pointed at it in interest. "Ah! You don't know what that stuff is, do ya, love?" I shook my head in a negative. "That's peanut butter and apple slices. I figure I'd start ya off with something nice and easy for a first meal, y'know?"

I examined the food with great curiosity, picking up one of the…'apple' slices and spinning it in my hands. "Are you going to eat it anytime soon?" Wheatley pressed. At his prodding, I took a nibble out of the tip.

My eyebrows went up and I smiled before taking a bigger bite. "You like apples, do you?" Wheatley laughed. I nodded enthusiastically. "Try it with peanut butter. It's even better."

_That's not possible_, I scoffed in my mind. I dipped the apple into some of the peanut butter and took a bite. This one was much less timid then the first.

My thoughts were proven wrong as the tastes of peanut butter and apple flooded my mouth and tongue, sliding blissfully down my throat.

Soon, the whole plate of food was wolfed down. I sat back contentedly in my chair, lazily twirling it from side to side with a hand resting on my stomach. Waves of exhaustion came at me full force, and I found myself yawning widely.

Wheatley chuckled. "Let me show you to a bed, so you can rest." I nodded sleepily, and stumbled after him as he left the room.

The sleeping quarters were like the rest of the testing facility—pristinely clean, and a plain design. There were two rows of four beds in the room, all of them made with white sheets with two pillows.

"Take your pick," Wheatley said, going to the railing in the middle of the room. "Since there's so few test subjects left, we have them all sort of spread out. Keeps the cleaner robots busy and not lazy. A lazy robot makes a certain GLaDOS…extremely angry and scary."

I smiled tiredly as I unlatched my boots. I set them carefully next to the bed I selected before pulling back the covers. I crawled underneath them, basking in the cool, relaxing feeling of them over my aching joints and limbs.

"I'll be back in a few hours for breakfast," Wheatley said as I started to nod off. "I figured you should eat with everyone else, so you can get to know them. The light switch is by the door, in case you feel the need to get up. The little button underneath, press that if you want me. I'll be there in a flash. Bathroom's through that door over there, and it's private, so feel free to use it whenever."

I nodded, not paying much attention. The only thing that mattered at the moment was the soft, heavenly bed I was in and how my eyelids kept on drooping…and drooping…

I heard a light chuckle. "Goodnight, love."

Wheatley left the room, and I fell deep into the welcoming arms of sleep.

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><p>I'll put up the next part tomorrow. This chapter's sort of a filler, and the REAL action starts in the next chapter. :3<p> 


	7. Confrontations

xXKatnissXx: thanks :) and omg! Put it up soon, I really want to read it!

PheobeLeo25: Thank you so, so much for your criticism, and I'm glad you like it ^-^ I'll try to figure out a way to make the characters more normal. And I swear...you must be psychic: I was planning on making this a lesbian fic...xD it won't be graphic or anything, just very romantic and stuff.

As always, thanks to whoever's reading! It means alot to me! Please review with your opinions of my story!

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><p>A neverending mist surrounded me. I groped out in front of me—what was I searching for? <em>Just keep searching<em>, my brain hissed urgently. _Hurry._

I did as the voice begged, and kept on searching. Dark figures of gray started to move in the mist, and each time I'd get closer, they'd disappear. I wanted to desperately call out to them—would they know what was going on?—yet I couldn't, thanks to me being mute.

Panic started to set in when a form started to mold in the darkness—it was giant and spherical, on what looked like a triangular platform. _Run!_ My brain screamed. _Run before he sees you!_

"Youuuuu…." A voice came out of nowhere. It sent shivers running up and down my spine, and the hairs on my neck stand up. I stumbled back, breathing heavily from fear. I didn't know what this was, and I didn't care. All I wanted to do was get as far away from this thing as possible.

Warm, strong arms wrapped themselves around my shoulders from behind. I yelped, but my heart tugged at me not to move. The darkness that was in front of me vanished, and the whole place seemed bright.

A gentle, deep woman's voice spoke. "It's okay. Everything's going to be okay."

I turned around, trying to find out who this woman was…why was she so familiar…?

I bolted upright on my bed, hair plastered to my forehead from sweat and muscles ready for action. There was a cry of surprise from my bedside, and someone falling. I looked over, and found Tandy sitting on the ground.

"Good morning to you, too," she grumbled irritably as she stood up.

"I'm sorry," I quickly signed to her. I scrambled off the bed, trying to make myself presentable. "How long have you been sitting here?"

"Not long," she said. "Wheatley asked me to come get you since GLaDOS gave him an assignment. Something about gigantic ants…? Bah, it doesn't matter." She shrugged it off. "He sends his apologies and the like. So, let's go take a shower, shall we? You're clothes're soaked with sweat."

I looked down guiltily and noticed she was correct in the observation. My clothes were sticking to me like a smelly, scratchy second skin. I nodded sheepishly and followed her out into the central Hub and to the shower rooms.

"You're not going to eat the soap again, are you?" Tandy asked cheekily, smirking. I rolled my eyes as I slid my clothes off of my body and into the dirty laundry shoot.

"How was I supposed to know?" I signed to her tersely.

"You win this round, O Mute One," she shot back smartly. I laughed silently as the water started cascading down in a shower of relief, taking with it all of the remnants of my fears from the nightmare.

Of course, that was dredged back up by Tandy.

"So, what were you dreaming about?" she asked casually as she soaped up her hair.

"I don't remember," I lied, scrubbing at a smudge of dirt on my skin.

"It musta been pretty scary, the way you were thrashing around," Tandy continued, washing the soap out. "You wouldn't wake up, even when I was screaming your name. And then you just sat up, all crazy-like."

"Sorry," I apologized shyly.

"No, no, it's not your fault," she brushed my apology off. "You can't control your subconscious."

I didn't respond, lost in my own thoughts. I knew that the dream had to do with something important, but _what_? What was that horrifying voice, and who was the woman who had hugged me so tenderly?

I searched my memory as hard as I could, eyebrows furrowing in concentration. All it did was give me a headache and make me even more confused than before.

"Hey, don't stress yourself about it," Tandy said, nudging me with her elbow softly. "Or whatever it is you're trying to remember. It'll come back to you eventually. Wheatley said that almost all cases of people with amnesia get their memories back."

I gave her a fleeting smile, washing off the body wash from my skin.

GLaDOS' voice cracked up from the speaker on the ceiling. "Test Subject Thirteen," she said coolly. "The next test is ready. Report to the elevator as soon as possible. And that means now." The speaker clicked off.

"Doesn't even give you a chance to eat, does she?" Tandy complained as I turned my showerhead off. I dried myself off as fast as I could before wrapping the towel around my body. I headed to the small cabinet that had all of the clean clothes and pulled out a pair, along with the Long Fall Boots, and hurriedly donned the orange jumpsuit and white undershirt.

I waved goodbye to Tandy as I hurried out into the Hub. "Wait, wait, wait!"

I turned around to see Tandy hurrying after me in a white towel, waving the Portal Gun I had completely forgotten about. I grabbed it and thanked her repeatedly. She just waved it off and left. She went back into the bathroom as I reached the elevators.

Jade was already standing and waiting for me, tapping her foot impatiently. She was standing in the blue elevator, so I took the other one, not feeling the need to argue with her.

"Try to be faster, Test Subject Thirteen," GLaDOS' snide voice came over the speaker as the doors closed around me. I nodded my head and settled in for the ride that awaited me.

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><p>I managed to run quickly for cover before the turrets could gun me down.<p>

I glared heatedly at Jade, who was admiring her nails. She had moved her portal containing the light bridge that had kept it between the turrets and me.

"What?" she asked sweetly. "Oh my!" She held up a hand to her mouth. "I didn't mean to do that! You must have been so close to being seriously injured." I shook my head roughly before swapping her portals with mine so I could get across.

"Please, don't do that again," I signed to her.

"You can't control accidents, _Tumbles_," Jade said with a sneer in her voice as she swaggered in front of the turrets.

Frowning, I moved my portal. She screamed and hurriedly moved around a corner. She looked at me in shock.

"Oops," I shrugged, matching her smile from before.

"Tumbles, you're just asking for a beating," she snarled at me, taking a step forward menacingly. I stumbled back a step. Okay, so maybe that wasn't my brightest idea. By far.

"I'm sorry," I signed to her repeatedly. She pushed me up against the wall, putting an arm on each side of my head. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm—"

"Stop flailing your arms around like an idiot, Tumbles," Jade barked at me. I jumped and put my arms protectively around my chest.

"Now, I'm going to explain this once, so you'd better listen and listen good," Jade growled calmly. I nodded my head rapidly, fear starting to rise in the back of my throat. "I know that you don't like me, and I sure as hell don't like you. But GLaDOS put us to work together, so we're going to have to deal, okay?"

I nodded repeatedly, and she gave me a half smile. "Sweetness," she said. "Let's hurryap with this course, then. I'm hungry as—"

Abruptly, a large shrieking sound filled the room. We both jumped and slapped our hands over our ears, trying to get the sound to go away. It was excruciatingly painful. It made my ears feel like they were going to start to bleed at any second.

"What the hell's going on?" I heard Jade yelled above the sound. It was nearly impossible to hear her.

There was a cracking sound, and a large, glass tube came barging through the ceiling. Tiles fell around us, a couple coming close to landing on Jade's head. Air started rushing up into it, carrying along with it pieces of the ceiling, anything that wasn't attached to the ground—

—which included Jade and me.

Jade's screams echoed against the walls of the type as we were pulled down the twisting tube at speeds that made my stomach churn queasily.

Just as soon as we'd been sucked in, we were falling out of it and onto a cold, familiar floor. I landed on top of Jade, and quickly scrambled off of her. I managed to get a look around—we were back in GLaDOS' control room—before a harsh metal clamp wound itself around my waist and jerked me into the air.

"YOU!" GLaDOS screeched. I realized that the whining sound had been her screaming. "I THOUGHT I KILLED YOU YEARS AGO!"

I stared at her in horror, shaking my head rapidly. What was she talking about? Had the AI gone completely crazy?

"GLaDOS, what are you talking about?" Jade yelled, standing up.

GLaDOS either didn't hear her, or ignored her completely. She brought me forward so I was in front of her eye, which seemed to be blazing with fury.

"I should've KNOWN," she screamed. "As soon as I SAW you I should've known! You look EXACTLY LIKE HER! And we are NOT having a repeat of last time! I have no sympathy for you OR her! AND YOU!"

Jade cried out as another clamp reached over and grabbed her, lifting her off of her feet. She tried to pull it off, but gave up when she realized it was futile.

"You knew about this, didn't you?" GLaDOS berated her. "YOU were planning on MURDERING me with this wretched, excuse of a human! Well, NOT THIS TIME!"

_This can't be happening. Please, someone tell me I'm still dreaming, and Tandy's going to wake me up any minute now. _But I knew that that wasn't going to happen any time soon. That piece of information sat like a stone in my stomach, and I felt the urge to throw up right then and there.

I nearly cried with relief when I heard the familiar sliding sound of Wheatley on his railing. He came zipping into the room, his eye widening as he took in what he was seeing.

"Wheatley!" Jade cried out when she saw the round robot. "Hurry! GLaDOS' totally lost it!"

"GLaDOS, what are you doing?" he yelled. "Have you gone _bonkers?"_

"You stay out of this, you moronic calculator, or I'll throw you back in the furnaces for the next decade!" GLaDOS threatened. Wheatley squeaked and moved back from her a good three feet.

A hole slid open in the floor, and the clamps raised us high above it. I looked down, and couldn't even see the bottom of it.

"Nononononono…." Jade whispered, realization dawning in her eyes. "You can't. You wouldn't…"

When GLaDOS spoke next—a single word—her voice was filled with contempt and hatred. Not a single ounce of sympathy, or guilt.

"Goodbye."

GLaDOS released the clamps, dropping us into the hole.

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><p>Whooo! Cliff-hangarrr :3<p>

I remember always hating cliff-hangers with a fiery passion, but now I'm doing it...I'm such a hypocrite...^_^" OH WELL!

The next part should be up either tomorrow or sunday.


	8. Explorations

Hello, my lovelies! I've finally finished the next part, and I'm actually satisfied with it ^-^

**NOTE**: This part has a bit of girlxgirl romance. It's nothing graphic (just a bit of cuddling). If it makes you uncomfortable, you may want to stop at the part where Thirteen has a bit of a meltdown, so you don't have to deal with it.

Hehehe, I'm soo excited for the weekend~ I get to go on a date with my girlfriend 3 It's our eight-month anniversary :D

Onto the next part!

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><p>A voice called to me, one that was familiar yet I could recognize. Who was it? Who was calling to me?<p>

I groaned and twitched my fingers. Harsh pieces of rock scraped underneath them, a particularly sharp piece sticking uncomfortably into the pad of my index finger.

"—_les! Tumbles!_"

I couldn't respond—I was too tired. Didn't this person understand that? All I wanted to do was sleep another hour or so…_How long have I been sleeping again…? Whatever, it's not even close to long enough._

There was a sharp pain to my cheek, and my head snapped to the side of it. I groaned louder in annoyance and pain, slowly finding that I had the ability to open my eyes.

"Oh, thank _GOD!_" the girl standing above me cried out in relief. She I was finally able to recognize who it was: Jade. My testing partner.

"What happened?" I signed weakly to her as I sat up slowly. Every muscle in my body screamed in protest, but I still forced them to move. I was going to have to at some point or another.

"You don't remember?" Jade asked, alarmed. "Did you hit your head too hard on the fall? I thought you landed on your feet but maybe you didn't…"

It all came rushing back to me. GLaDOS screaming obscenities at me, Jade being thrown into the mess, and then the fall that seemed to go on forever before I crashed into something hard and blacked out…

"Oh," I mouthed silently.

"'Oh' is right," Jade snorted derisively, rocking back on her heels. "I don't know what the hell was up with that, but please tell me you do." I shook my head 'no' sheepishly. "Well, crap."

I looked around, only noticing our surroundings for the first time. "Where are we?" I asked her.

"Hell if I know," she responded sourly. "I think we might be in some of the old testing tracks—like the really old ones. The first."

I didn't respond as I looked around. To put it frankly, the place was a dump. Everything was falling apart, the walls were cracked, and everything metal was starting to rust. Pieces of metal and scraps were scattered around the area, covering almost everything. Above us, the ceiling was just a gray haze.

"If we weren't so screwed, I'd be geeking out," Jade continued. "I've always wanted to come down here. GLaDOS only mentioned it once or twice, and each time she said that if we went down here we'd be burned to ashes."

I was only half paying attention as I shakily stood up. I realized with a panic that my Portal Gun was missing. That panic was quickly put down when I saw that it was a few yards away, under a piece of metal. I stumbled over to it and heaved the metal off of it, picking up the familiar gun. It gave me an odd sense of relaxation.

"What now?" I signed to her.

"We should try to get out of here," she said, "Find a way to the surface. It's our only option."

"What about GLaDOS?" I asked. "Are we going back to her?"

"Not. A. Chance," Jade growled. I glanced at her, silently asking her to continue. "Did you not see how she treated us? Like we were dogs being scolded. She just threw us in a hole without even trying to listen to us."

She had a point. Logically, I knew that. But something wanted me to stay. Maybe it was because that was the only place I remembered. The placed I was slowly starting to call my home.

"Where would we go?" I signed.

"Dunno," she shrugged. She started walking towards a gap in the metal around us. I hurriedly stood up and followed her. "But any place is better than here."

I mulled over this information as we went through the gap. Was there a place better than this? _Of course there is,_ my brain snorted. _There's a whole other world out there. One you used to live in. _One that I had no recollection of.

"You can do what you want," Jade said as she popped a portal high above us near a platform and a white space near us. "I really don't care what you choose. Just remember, if you come along with me, I'll be trying to shut down GLaDOS. Once and for all."

The words held a certain finality to them as she stepped through the portal to the other side. She watched me patiently, waiting for my decision.

I hesitated. Should I go with her? Or face this odd world by myself…?

I shook my head roughly, trying to clear it. _I think Jade's right—maybe I did hit my head. _I couldn't concentrate on anything. I would just have randomly pick one, and live with it.

Holding my breath, I took a step forward, through the portal.

I gave Jade a timid smile. She returned it with a broad grin, clapping me hard on the shoulder. "That's the spirit, Tumbles," she said. "I knew you were more daring than you looked."

I secretly nursed my hurt shoulder as Jade led us through the old testing tracks. It was dimly lit, and eerily quietly. Besides the occasional sound of creaking metal or the crackling of a nearby fire, it was silent.

To pass the time, Jade started to tell me the history of the old testing courses.

"No one knows exactly why they were closed down," she said, stepping over something in her path. "The rumor is that there was some new portal conductor that happened to be poison. Bah, but how should I know? I was just a lowly test subject. They didn't tell us anything."

I put portals on a piece hanging off the ceiling and next to us. We went through and landed easily on our feet.

This went on for what felt like forever. We went on and on for what must have been hours, and I found myself unable to keep up with Jade's brisk pace.

"Please," I signed to her. "Can we take a break soon? I can't feel my legs anymore…"

Jade raised an eyebrow, turning fully to look at me. "You're already tired?" she asked, crossing her arms. I nodded sheepishly, my gaze darting to the ground. "But we've only been going for, like six hours."

"Six hours of climbing through rubble and jumping over things," I corrected gently, shifting my weight from leg to leg, allowing a small bit of relief.

Jade huffed in annoyance. "Whatever," she said. "Let's just get another hour before we stop. That okay?"

It wasn't okay. I felt like my legs would collapse at any point. My hands were shaking from exhaustion, almost to the point where I had trouble aiming my Portal Gun at the walls. Jade didn't seem to notice; she barely took her eyes off of the path in front of us, barely speaking words.

When she did speak, though, it was always very terse. She would usually point out my mistakes, or what I should do the next time. Whatever I did didn't seem to satisfy my testing partner.

After another half hour, I tripped. We were walking on a small path between a wall and a lake of murky water. I was in front of Jade, and was swaying dangerously close to the edge without realizing it. My foot caught on a loose stone, and I almost went tumbling into the water.

Jade's arm wrapped around my waist and jerked me back against her. I could feel her heart racing against my back, my own beating off-rhythm with hers. Without any sort of warning, she whipped our positions around, so I was pressed up against the wall and she had her forearms on either side of my head.

"Jesus Christ, Tumbles!" she screamed at me. Her voice echoed and bounced off the faraway walls in the distance. "Are you _trying _to get yourself killed?"

"No, I slipped—" I tried.

"It doesn't matter!" Jade snarled. "You're pathetic. If you fell down into the water, you'd die! It's acid! Do you even know what that is? _Do you even know what the hell I'm saying_?" She was screaming into my face, her nose only a few inches from mine, expression contorted with rage.

Suddenly, my emotions bubbled up to the surface from somewhere deep inside me. It was like a dam had broken, and they came flowing out and filling my being. My fingers could barely keep up with my racing mind, and Jade was watching me with confusion.

"Why do you hate me?" I signed in a flurry of movements. "I didn't do anything to make you not like me!"

"Well—" she started, but I gave her a rough and vicious shove to the shoulder, effectively shutting her up.

"I'm trying to talk! Don't interrupt me!" I angrily signed. "I'm making a point here! I'm sick and tired of you treating me like a piece of dirt, and not even baring about my feelings! I—"

I froze when I forgot how to sign the next part of what I wanted to say. I tried to sign it again, and failed miserably. I opened my mouth to speak, and no sound came out. Not even a squeak.

Frustration rushed through me, and I choked on a sob. Jade didn't know what to do, and just stood there awkwardly. I hurriedly turned around so she wouldn't have to deal with seeing the tears that glistened in my eyes. I squeezed my shoulders until my knuckles turned white, trying desperately to stop crying.

"T-Tumbles," Jade stuttered in shock. One of my hands let go of my shoulder shakily and gave her the smallest of waves, telling her to go away.

"Why are you crying?" Jade asked.

Wait…she actually sounded concerned. Genuinely. Why would she be concerned about me? I was just a mute, brain-damaged girl. Someone who couldn't remember her own name. Someone who should still be in cryostasis in a coma.

I wanted to sign to her that I was okay, but that would involve having to turn around to face Jade. Instead, I opted to just shake my head roughly, trying to wave her off again.

Tentative fingertips touched my shoulder. I jerked away, and started shaking with silent sobs. I leaned my forehead hard against the cold wall. _Keep it together, Thirteen, just keep it together…_

"Thirteen…" she murmured in a soft voice.

My name sounded odd rolling off of Jade's tongue. It was sort of comforting, and my shakes started to lessen. I was surprised beyond belief when the tall girl wrapped her lanky arms my waist.

"I-I'm not great at this comforting thing," she muttered awkwardly, "But it's going to be okay. I think."

My fingers started to release the death grip they had on my shoulders. Jade must have taken this as a good time to try and touch me again. When she touched my shoulder carefully, I didn't pull away. I was too stunned to move as she slid her arms around my shoulders, hugging me loosely.

"Jade," I was about to sign, but she guided my hand back down to my side.

"Don't worry 'bout anything right now," Jade whispered. "Okay?"

I hesitantly nodded, staring straight at the wall. My face was on fire—_blushing_, the voice in my mind supplied—and I stared at the dirty and cracked wall in front of me, unblinking. Jade rested her head in the crook of my neck, unsettling a few strands of my black hair. She tightened her arms reflexively, and started rocking from side to side.

The feeling was indescribable. I had no memories of ever feeling so intimate, so unconditionally cared for at that moment. Someone was actually concerned about me, and was holding me. Something stirred inside my heart, warming me up.

We stayed like that for a few minutes. We didn't say anything. There was nothing to say.

"Let's keep going," Jade murmured roughly into my ear. "We'll find a place that seems relatively safe, and then we can rest." I sniffed in agreement. We silently started walking again, up a leaning staircase.

There was a small room to the side. It had checkered light and dark yellow tiles, and a few desks that were splayed haphazardly around the room. The walls were made of glass, overlooking the messy testing track.

Jade busted open a rusty locker, and found a few old lab coats that weren't too badly moth-eaten. She laid both of them out next to each other, with a good foot of space between them.

"We're gonna have a long ways to go when we wake up," Jade said as I sat down. My bones groaned in relief. "So sleep well."

I wasn't in any position to argue or protest. I curled into a tight ball, staring out the window at the dizzying amount of space laid out in front of us.

"Hey."

I raised my head and looked over at Jade, who had her arms tucked under her head. "I hate you, Tumbles," she said, flashing me a toothy grin.

I returned the smile. "I hate you, too," I signed back. She chuckled went back to staring at the ceiling.

My smile remained plastered on my face as I settled back into a fetal position. No more than five minutes later, I was in a deep sleep.

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><p>:) As usual, please review! It doesn't take long, and it means sosososo much to me! x3<p> 


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